God's World Book And God's Word Book

Psalm 19

Transcript

Lord God, thank you for the gift of Holy Scripture. And right now we pray for
your Holy Spirit to help us to understand, to obey you and worship you as we
hear this and to grow in obedience to you. So please open our hearts and minds
during this time. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. All right, Psalm 19. 
The heavens declare the glory of God
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night
to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice
is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth in their words to the
end of the world. In them, he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a
bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them and
there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The
precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord
is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are
they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of
the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, as your servant warned, in keeping them, there
is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden
faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have
dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. One of our prayer points for this year
is that God, by his Holy Spirit, would give the people in our church, would give
our church family, a brand new or renewed love for the Bible. And in our passage
this morning, we're going to talk about the revelation of God, and that comes
from two main sources. First, his creative world, his created world, and
secondly, his word. The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, used to say that God
has two books, his world book and his word book. And the psalm that we just read
can be broken into three sections. The first section, verses 1 through 6, talks
about the way the created world testifies to the glory of God. The second
section, verses 7 through 11, talks about the perfection of God's word. And the
third section, verses 12 through 14, is the humble response of the worshiper of
God, who has read both books. So in that first section of the psalm that we just
read, verses 1 through 6, psalm 19, 1 through 6, talks about a kind of, let's
call it a wordless speech about God that comes from observing the world around
us. Then in psalm 19, 7 through 11, we see actual direct revelation. There is an
actual direct revelation about who God is and what he's done, and that comes
through the words of Scripture. Theologians break that up into two categories.
Called general revelation and special revelation. You may have heard those terms
before. General revelation is available because it is, it's general because it's
available to everyone regardless of who they are, through our ability to reason
and to observe when we look at the world around us. Special revelation comes
through Scripture and through the person of Jesus Christ. And through special
revelation, we see the way of salvation. But let's start here looking at verses
1 through 6, and we'll see how the created world reveals the creator. Look at
verses 1 through 6 with me. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night
reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not
heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a
bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from his heat. So that psalm begins saying, the
heavens declare the glory of God. If we read our Bibles, we should say, of
course, because the first chapter of Genesis tells us God made the heavens and
the earth. The world was created by God. It was created good by a master
creator, and therefore it testifies to his character, to his reality, to his
glory. People will sometimes ask me, and I would not be surprised if many of you
have heard this question yourself, some variation on if Christians believe that
there is a real heaven and a real hell, that those are actual places, well then,
what about those who have never heard about Jesus? If you can only be reconciled
to God and have your sins forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, his son, well
then, what about those who have never heard? How is that fair? There are usually
three variations to that question. One has to do with people in the Old
Testament who lived before the time of Jesus. Where are they? What happens to
them? The answer to that, and we could say more, but the answer to that is that
those Old Testament saints, like for example, Abraham or Moses or David, were
anticipating Jesus. They are commended for their faith, and they clearly looked
forward to what was to come. There's a second question, and it has to do with
tragedies, where unborn babies or infants or children die before they fully
mature. That's not something that the Bible addresses extensively and there's
not some defined age of accountability in the Scripture. But we can look at
David in 2 Samuel, who lost a child at birth. And David's response to the death
of his infant son in 2 Samuel 12-23 is, Can I bring him back again? I shall go
to him, but he shall not return to me. And it suggests that David knows that he
will stay and David knows that he will see his newborn son again in the life to
come. The third question is addressed in our text today, and it has to do with
those who have no gospel witness. What if someone grows up in a country close to
the gospel where there is no Bible in their language? What if someone never
hears the message of the gospel? The Scripture tells us that everyone, everyone,
no matter their nationality, their education, their family background, has a
basic elementary embryonic knowledge of God. That's what Paul teaches us in
Romans. Romans 2 verses 14 and 15 says, For when the Gentiles, who do not have
the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even
though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written
on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting
thoughts accuse or even excuse them. What Paul's saying about the Gentiles, in
other words, those outside of the covenant community, is that they are still
born with a conscience, with an innate sense of right and wrong. So we have
this. We have a basic appreciation for things like honesty, justice, self-
sacrifice, love of neighbor. We're born with it. That's God's common grace to
humanity. For example, many of you can vividly recall almost 25 years ago when
our nation was attacked by the twin towers in the Twin Towers fell, and you saw
footage of firefighters and emergency responders selflessly rushing into
buildings, trying their best to save lives at great risk to themselves. Nobody
needed to take a religion class to recognize that was good. We have that sense
written on our hearts. We have an innate recognition that there is a God written
on our hearts, and the Psalm tells us nature itself testifies to the reality of
the glory of God. We live in a world that God has created, and the mountains,
the sunsets, the stars, the moons, the river, the moon, the rivers, the lakes,
the oceans testify to his magnificence. And even if you're going to reduce that
down to a much smaller scale and look at insects or snowflakes or blades of
grass, we see things about the amazing creative capacity of God. When we
consider the stars, we ought to see the glory of God. And the Psalm tells us
that the speech of God through his created world, it's not a whisper. It's not
hard to hear. Look at the words in the Psalm. The heavens declare the glory of
God. The sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech. The
communication from God is, it's loud. And it goes to every language, every
corner of the globe. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not
heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. God is speaking loudly, eloquently, comprehensively to the world. The
message goes to the ends of the world. No one is unable to access general
revelation. The testimony about God goes out everywhere. It's comprehensive. It
goes to all the earth, to every corner of the world. If we fail to see it, if we
fail to see it and to hear it, it's deliberate stubbornness. If a person has
never once been to church, never heard a sermon, never opened the Bible, never
had someone explain the gospel to them, they have still seen a sermon every day
of their lives through the revelation of God's creation. And yet, most people
fail to see it because it is, even though it is all around them. Why is that?
There's an English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and she wrote, Earth is
crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees
it takes off his shoes. Most people do not take off their shoes. And it's an
allusion to Moses and the burning bush. But in other words, most people do not
see the created world and see the holiness and the creativity and the glory of
God and respond to God in worship. And this is not like a modern problem.
Ancient people saw the glory of the natural world and they wanted to worship
nature itself, the sun, the moon, the stars. Modern people see the natural world
and want to explain it through long, impersonal, random evolutionary processes.
But we suppress the truth of God that is self-evident in the world. A couple of
years ago, a close friend of mine came to visit from out of town and he had
never seen Niagara Falls before. So I'm, of course, like everyone else in
Western New York, I only go to the falls when people come from out of town. And
so we had to go down there, even though he's not really what I would call
someone who has a particular appreciation for nature. And we walked down to the
Horseshoe Falls. And when we were there, I was surprised at how somber he became
and how long he looked at the waterfalls. It seemed like there was a heaviness
that came over him. Text tells us day to day pours out speech. Night to night
reveals knowledge. Every single day, 65 billion gallons of water pour over the
falls, 75,000 gallons per second. And I know we can talk about melting glaciers
and ice ages from thousands of years ago, but even then we have to see that
there is a personal, creative God behind these natural wonders. And about a year
after that visit, my friend was caught in a lie that he had been hiding for
years from his family, from his friends like me, from his church. And I thought
back to our time at the falls. And it's hard for me to think that my friend was
not suppressing the truth, even in that moment, trying to push away the
uneasiness of his conscience. This is the way of sinful mankind, to suppress our
consciences and to suppress the truth that is revealed about God in nature.
Romans 1 speaks to this. Romans 1, 18 through 21 tells us, For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is
plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes,
namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are
without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give
thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish
hearts were darkened. God's character and God's reality are plain to see in the
world. Now that does not mean that all our questions about who God is and what
he requires are made clear in nature, but it does mean that the existence of God
is plain. He has eternal power. He was there before the world began. He is the
first mover. He has a divine nature. He is not like us. The psalm goes on to say
that the Son comes out like a bridegroom, leaving his chamber, and like a strong
man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its
circuit to the end of them. There is nothing hidden from his heat. If that's
confusing to us, that imagery, it's because for us, in a typical wedding, the
groom is kind of a boring looking guy standing up here in a tuxedo looking like
a deer in the headlights, and all of our attention is on the bride coming down
the aisle. But in this picture, it's the bridegroom in royal or festive
garments, and he's running from his chamber to claim his bride. It's actually a
picture of Jesus, who will one day return to earth as a bridegroom coming to
claim his bride, the church. This is what is foretold at the end of the Old
Testament when Malachi says that the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing
in his wings. So we anticipate that day, but all of creation testifies to God's
reality. But God does not only speak to us in the created world and try and just
leave us to kind of put the pieces together. The second section of the psalm
focuses on God's special revelation, which is given to us in Scripture through
the Word of God. Charles Spurgeon said, Psalm 19, 7 through 11 says, The
precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord
is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are
they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of
the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there
is great reward. So we hear words that sound like synonyms, like the same things
being said over and over. The law, the testimony, the precepts, the
commandments. Not the same things. The law in verse seven refers to God's
revealed law. And for David, who's the writer of this psalm, that would be the
Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. The precepts and commandments
refer to specific situations where God's word tells us precisely how to behave.
God does not just give us vague words. He instructs us precisely. He gives us
rules so that we may know how to respond to various situations. God reveals to
us His word in the Scriptures, and then trust and obedience is our response.
Look at these adjectives describing God's word. We see that it's perfect. It's
pure. It's true. It's desirable. So look at how the word of God is described.
Perfect, pure, true, desirable. And then look at what it does. The law of the
Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. For David, like I said, this would be the
Torah. But for us, we would understand it to be all of scripture, the whole
inspired book, the whole inspired Bible. The scripture is perfect without error,
and it's sufficient, containing everything that we need for life and for
godliness. And then now this is what the perfect word of God does. God converts
sinners and calls them to Himself by His word. It's through the word of God and
the work of the Holy Spirit that our souls are revived. It's as though God by
His Holy Spirit performed CPR on our hearts through His mighty word. It's
through the created world that we see that there's a creator. It's through the
word of God that we can learn how to be restored to a relationship with Him. The
word of God has the power to transform. It converts the sinner, and the text
says it makes wise the simple. When you are around people who love the Bible and
have devoted themselves to God's word over many years, you start to realize that
wisdom is very different than having a high IQ. Ordinary, simple, average people
become wise, become rooted. They learn how to function in the world that God's
made through their love for His word. The text says it's more to be desired than
gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the drippings of the
honeycomb. That verse points out things that we commonly desire, money and
pleasure. Not many people have a problem cultivating a desire for those things.
We have those almost intuitively. But we're told that the word of God is better,
sweeter, and more to be desired than money or pleasure. And moreover, by them is
your servant warned. In keeping them, there's great reward. Not only is the word
of God superior to money or pleasure, it also protects us from evil and it
offers us great reward. So David the psalmist considers the glory of God's
general revelation and the perfection of God's special revelation, His word,
through the scripture, and he concludes this psalm with a prayer. And this is
where the psalm goes from being poetic to very practical with the prayer of the
humble, verses 12 through 14. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent
from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them
not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great
transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Our response to
God's eloquent speech and creation and God's perfect word in scripture must be
one of humility. In the same way, just as nothing is hidden from the heat of the
sun, the word of God searches out every nook and cranny of our hearts. So David
says, who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. We all
have those hidden faults. We have many blind spots. We do not see ourselves with
perfect clarity. The idea of hidden sins mean there are sins that I've committed
that I'm not even aware of. There are sins that I've committed that I can't
remember anymore. There are sins that I've committed out of ignorance when I did
not even know what God's law commanded. Who can even know all of his sins? My
freshman year in college, I took a class called Western Civilization. So it was
September of my very first year at college, and we had in that class our first
written test. Some people had told me in advance that the professor was pretty
tough. But I wrote my essay, handed in that little blue book, and I turned it in
and I thought it was pretty good. When I got it back, my professor had used red
pen to make corrections. There was so much red on my essay, it looked like he
had had a medical event while he was grading my paper. What I thought was good
was covered in red pen. There were corrections everywhere. I had completely
missed the mark, and I got the first D in my life that day. But if we were,
think about this, if we were to submit our last week to God, to a holy God, let
alone our lives in sum total, we would be blown away by our sin and by our blind
spots. We don't measure up to this holy God who created the world. We don't obey
him as we ought, and we don't love his word as we should. Who can discern his
errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. David also prays, keep back your
servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I
shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. The presumptuous sins
are even worse than the hidden sins, which can come from ignorance. The
presumptuous sins are deliberate. I knew what God's word required, and I defied
it. I sinned deliberately. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless. So you think, how
could I be blameless? See that word in verse 12? Declare me innocent.
Blamelessness is a declaration of God. We receive our righteousness, our right
standing, not from our performance, not from our efforts at moral improvement.
It's an alien righteousness, meaning it comes from outside of us. It is not
internally generated. It comes from outside. It's the perfect righteousness of
Jesus Christ credited to our account on our behalf through faith in him. It's
the righteousness of God through faith in Christ for all who believe.
Blamelessness cannot be achieved through more effort. It's a declaration of God
coming through faith in Jesus's perfect substitutionary obedience. And then,
only then, can I pursue practical righteousness once I have embraced by faith
the alien righteousness of Christ on my behalf. And then, only then, can I pray
in humility and gratitude and love. Let the words of my mouth and the
meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my strength, my
rock, and my Redeemer. So let me just make a couple points of application for
what this all means for us. And the first one is very simple, but I want to
encourage you to say it's also very Christian. Point of application number one.
Enjoy nature. We're not pantheists. Those are people who worship the creation
itself. We're not the people who say the woods and the trees are my church. But
we are people who worship the creator who's behind the creation. Christians, of
all people, should be people who appreciate the created world the most because
we see its divine origin. When you hear secular people say things like, I got to
put my phone down. I need to get outside and get in touch with nature. They're
onto something and they are longing for transcendence. But apart from the grace
of God opening their eyes, they are still impoverished. What a terrible thing to
see Niagara Falls or Letchworth or the sunset over Lake Erie or the moon or the
stars of the Grand Canyon and not be able to worship the creator. So whether
whether you enjoy camping or hiking or fishing or climbing or just taking a walk
and enjoying the sunset, enjoy nature and let it lead you to worship the creator
himself. Secondly, cultivate a love for the word of God. When we read all this
poetry in verses seven through 11 about the supreme value of the word of God, we
ought to ask ourselves, is that how I really think about the Bible? Do I treat
the scripture like it is more to be desired than gold? Most people who know you
and love you could probably give a pretty good commentary on what you love. It's
hard to hide the things that you love. They could probably speak with accuracy.
She loves her family. He really loves his kids. She loves to travel. He loves
the bills. They could probably say what you love with pretty good accuracy.
Would they say of you, she loves the word of God. He loves the word of God. And
third and finally, we ought to pray the prayer of the psalmist. God is the one
who knows you, who created you. He is alone the one who can declare you
innocent. He can cleanse you both from your hidden sins and your presumptuous
sins. And he cleanses you not because of some renewed effort that you make, not
because of some moment of conviction that you say, I'm going to do better. He
can cleanse you because he sent his son, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And in
humility, we ought to pray this prayer. Let the words of my mouth and the
meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my
redeemer. Let's pray.